FRUITY LOOPS 101 - PLEASE direct -ALL- FL questions here

[CC Ricers]

Also, know that "main automation" pattern that shows up in every new file? This is what it's best used for. Keep "global" changes and effects in their own automation patterns. Like Splunkle said, you don't want to mix two automations of the same parameter, the results can be unpredictable. But I wonder what really happens...do automations in the top patterns take higher precedence over the patterns below it? Hmmm, the record feature might help me find out.

[noTuX]

When I'm making songs in FL 6, I try to make them as loud as possible without clipping, so that peeps can hear everything with no problems. But for some reason, whenever I try to listen to that same song in Windows Media or Sound Forge, its not really as loud as I thought it should be. I always have to turn my speakers up to hear. And that is bothering me.

Like I said before, In FL Studio, I have my volume levels turned up to the point where they are really close to clipping (but never does) and I do not have the db meter set to where it peaks automatically, so it should be showing the correct overall peaks.

So my question is, is there some kind of way to raise my volume leves some more and still keep from clipping, or is there something that I need to set before converting the flp file to MP3?

I'm sorry if this is hard to understand, I explained it the best I know how.

_________________

[Nineko]

why don't you export a wav instead, and edit it in a Sound Editor so you can normalize it or adjust the RMS level?

[noTuX]

Whenever ues the Sound Forge sound editor, once I save it, the actual file size becomes large as hell. On average around 14 Mb.

I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to the technical stuff in music, so I'm not really sure what you mean when you say adjust the RMS levels.

[Splunkle]

Blue Magic: Time to do some reading.

http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=88462

http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=78465

That second one should be particularly helpful =P

Have fun!

[CC Ricers]

I have a hardware synth set to play notes on FL, so I can play any instrument on FL with the synth keyboard. But I can't do the opposite. Any patterns played on FL don't seem to send midi signals back to the keyboard. I already checked the volume, and the midi control mode it both plays sound and receives midi signals. So kind of a noob at this. Does the port number matter? My keyboard has a setting for midi channels, but not ports.

[OverCoat]

Selecting the port does matter, but just to FruityLoops.

Give your midi out device a port. EXAMPLE: For me, that would be "Out A-MidiSport 2x2" and you'd set it to 0, so that whenever you load a midi track it is set to go to your keyboard automatically.

[Quinch]

'ello, first time poster, aspiring remixer, checked most of the stickies, with a probably obvious, but seemingly help-uncovered question;

How do I fade my notes in and out? In this particular case, in a Soundfont channel {by the way, if you can't buy FL SF plugin, SFZ looks useable and apparently free}, I want to open up with a low, ommmminous hummmmm, but the instruments, when plucked, sounds like BOMMmmmmmm, as opposed to a wanted bbbbooooommMMMM... i.e. fade in from zero to its set volume and I don't see a knob to do that with.

Regards,

Quinch

[Splunkle]

There are a few ways of doing this, but I will start with what is probably the easiest. Use a slide. Slides are like normal notes, except instead of just playign a new note, all the current notes will slide to it... usually this is used when wanting to slide up and down notes - but it can used for gradual volume changes. What happens is all the note currently playing will slide to the volume of the slide.

So here is what you do:

1) Play the notes you want, just like you normally would, but make there velocity such that the volume is what you want to start at.

2) When you want the notes to start getting louder, start the slide. Its a button on the piano roll - look at the help file to find out where it is. Anyways, the slide should placed on the same note as the highest note currently playing in the piano roll. So if you playing a Cmaj, (C-E-G), then the slide would go on the G. This is just to make sure the notes don't go sliding around in pitch, which isn't what you want.

3) Make the slide's velocity such that it is the volume you want the notes to end on. The slides duration determines how long it takes the notes to get there - by the end of the slide, they are at the volume of the slide.

Okay, that was all kinda confusing. I'm not explaining this well. Go look up slides in the help file, it will explain it all there, and then fiddle, thats probably eaisiest.

There are other techniques, like volume automation or crazy-ass envelope manipulation, but they would be more hardwork, methinks. Slides are great once you get used to them.

[Chavous]

I think he's talking about volume, not pitch...

On the channel window of your selected soundfont, right click "volume" and then "edit events". Pick the soundfont you want that has a nice long sustain, if you want a good hum.

Now, start at the bottom of the Edit Events window and drag your mouse up in a diagonal to your selected volume.

With the low volume start, it will eliminate the beginning "BOO" and when you fade it in, if your sample has enough sustain, it will have a nice "ooooooOOOOM" sound.

[Splunkle]

Chav, that's just the thing - slides affect all note properties, not just pitch - they affect pan, velocity filter cut, and so on.

I'll have another go at explaining. lets say you have a note, C, which you want to go from velocity 30 to velocity 80. All you do is:

1) set the notes velocity to 30,

2) drop a slide ALSO ON C SO THERE IS NO PITCH DIFFERENCE <---IMPORTANT

3) Set the slide's velocity to 80.

DONE. You now have a C note that will increase in volume from whatever the volume is at velocity 30 to whatever the volume is at 80. Easy. Much easier than mucking about with events.

[prophetik music]

Chav, that's just the thing - slides affect all note properties, not just pitch - they affect pan, velocity filter cut, and so on.

I'll have another go at explaining. lets say you have a note, C, which you want to go from velocity 30 to velocity 80. All you do is:

1) set the notes velocity to 30,

2) drop a slide ALSO ON C SO THERE IS NO PITCH DIFFERENCE <---IMPORTANT

3) Set the slide's velocity to 80.

DONE. You now have a C note that will increase in volume from whatever the volume is at velocity 30 to whatever the volume is at 80. Easy. Much easier than mucking about with events.

or, you could just automate the volume. that'd be the easiest way, IMO. or, you could just fool with the attack settings, too.

also, quinch, we can see who you are by your username. don't sign your posts - it gets annoying after a while.

[Chavous]

Chav, that's just the thing - slides affect all note properties, not just pitch - they affect pan, velocity filter cut, and so on.

I'll have another go at explaining. lets say you have a note, C, which you want to go from velocity 30 to velocity 80. All you do is:

1) set the notes velocity to 30,

2) drop a slide ALSO ON C SO THERE IS NO PITCH DIFFERENCE <---IMPORTANT

3) Set the slide's velocity to 80.

DONE. You now have a C note that will increase in volume from whatever the volume is at velocity 30 to whatever the volume is at 80. Easy. Much easier than mucking about with events.

I don't know...the slide button never seemed to work for me...ever. So I just go with what I know. It seems easier, but still..

[Splunkle]

Prophet: Really? Each to their own, I guess.

Chav: I've decieded to make an example, so you can see how it works:

http://www.users.on.net/~fido/example%20of%20volume%20slide.flp

[Stanley Pain]

i'd say automate the volume or envelope. both these options give you way more control and it's a better habit to get into. i'd probably go with the envelope, and hell, why not automate the filter as well, probably set to an lpf.

much of what we percieve to be ominous, psychoacoustically speaking, is high frequencies creeping in at hearing's noise floor, especially 1k to 3k frequencies. that's the reptilian front lobes being stimulated. ever wonder why quiet rustling sounds are so unnerving to large mammals such as ourselves?

Chav, that's just the thing - slides affect all note properties, not just pitch - they affect pan, velocity filter cut, and so on.

I'll have another go at explaining. lets say you have a note, C, which you want to go from velocity 30 to velocity 80. All you do is:

1) set the notes velocity to 30,

2) drop a slide ALSO ON C SO THERE IS NO PITCH DIFFERENCE <---IMPORTANT

3) Set the slide's velocity to 80.

DONE. You now have a C note that will increase in volume from whatever the volume is at velocity 30 to whatever the volume is at 80. Easy. Much easier than mucking about with events.

I don't know...the slide button never seemed to work for me...ever. So I just go with what I know. It seems easier, but still..

[Tr4ck]

Mmmmmmhmmmmmm. time for everyone to open up collab again.

[Pluggs]

Will someone help me, im a complete noob with fruityloops and i have this problem where i put a few sounds say about 3 in the playlist area and they work fine but i add another sound maybe 1 or 2 more sounds. And now when i press play some sounds dont work. Is there away to fix this?

[Splunkle]

Will someone help me, im a complete noob with fruityloops and i have this problem where i put a few sounds say about 3 in the playlist area and they work fine but i add another sound maybe 1 or 2 more sounds. And now when i press play some sounds dont work. Is there away to fix this?

Okay. Being a newbies cool. But I'm not sure what your problem is - that sentence was kinda a mess. I'll try to deciper it:

1) You have added approximatly 3 audio clips, and everything is good.

2) You add another 2 audio clips, and now some of the audio clips don't work.

Is this correct? If it is, I'm thinking hardware issues. Try disabiling background programs, and try setting your buffer length (found in options>audio settings) higher.

[Pluggs]

Yeah thats it sorry about my bad grammar i really didnt know wat i was talking about. Haha thank you so much, it worked

[Radiowar]

Is it possible to do time signature changes in FL Studio? And I mean without just writing one beat less than 4/4 or something...I need to go from 4/4 to 7/8 to 6/8 and back and it would help if I could clearly define that in the playlist.

[OverCoat]

You can set patterns to have a set number of beats.

On the step sequencer [holy fuck it's actually useful?] at the top left there is a [--] box, when you mouse over it, it says "beats per bar for this pattern."

I have an older song which takes advantage of this. One pattern is 4/4 and one is 5/4, and they're both playing at the same time. It actually sounded pretty cool.

Of course now you have to adjust the playlist snap, which isn't hard. Go forth and make music, Radiowar.

[Radiowar]

Yeah I was hoping I wouldn't have to do that.

[Tr4ck]

Is there any other away to assign different keys on a midi keyboard to different synths, other than using a layer?

[sdv]

You can set patterns to have a set number of beats.

On the step sequencer [holy fuck it's actually useful?] at the top left there is a [--] box, when you mouse over it, it says "beats per bar for this pattern."

I have an older song which takes advantage of this. One pattern is 4/4 and one is 5/4, and they're both playing at the same time. It actually sounded pretty cool.

Of course now you have to adjust the playlist snap, which isn't hard. Go forth and make music, Radiowar.

Alternatively, you could just program the entire pattern in the piano roll, then start the next one immediately where that pattern ends. Then again, that's more of a pain in the ass then what you suggested...

[Psyber]

I have an issue with FL Studio Producer Edition v5.02. When I go to save my project as a Fruity Loops loop file, it dont save it right. All I get is a file with the name i chose and a file size of 0. If I save it as a zipped loop file the loop file in the zip is also 0 on its file size in the zip. If I save as a mp3 or wav file Im just fine. What is causing this and how can I fix it?

Im very sorry if this question has been asked before in this thread but my internet connection has been really slow lately so it wouldve taken me forever to look through all 160+ pages of this thread to see if it was answered.